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Times Leader 2017 Boys Swimming and Diving All-Stars

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Brian Wilson brings audience back to ’60s at Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre

<p>KINGSTON &#8212; Marcos Rico felt a bit of intimidation before journeying across the Atlantic Ocean to Wyoming Seminary.</p><p>Rico was a national champion at his age level in his home country of Spain. Spending a year studying and swimming in the United States, home to the world&#8217;s top international program, felt admittedly daunting.</p><p>&#8220;I came here expecting everyone to be super good, they&#8217;re all really good,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t have much expectations about winning. I just wanted to swim my best. I didn&#8217;t think I&#8217;d be able to compete that much because it&#8217;s the United States.&#8221;</p><p>The sophomore foreign exchange student made a splash that will be felt in the record books for quite some time. Rico became the Wyoming Valley Conference&#8217;s first state champion in a decade, won four district gold medals, broke three district records and collected three state medals to take home with him to Madrid.</p><p>Rico was named Times Leader&#8217;s Boys Swimmer of the Year for his success in his success in what will be his only year competing locally.</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s the best year of my life,&#8221; Rico said. &#8220;Coming here to a big private school like Sem, it&#8217;s just been a great experience for me, a great opportunity.&#8221;</p><p>Rico won the PIAA championship in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 57 seconds flat, the fastest time for any Class 2A swimmer in the state in six years. His performance was the third-quickest time in state history.</p><p>Winning a state title, he said, was more of a gratifying feeling than even his Spanish age-level gold and silver medals. In Spain, as the rest of Europe, there is no such thing as interscholastic swimming, and the aspect of a swimming team was a foreign concept to him.</p><p>&#8220;In Spain, I was more of an individual,&#8221; Rico said. &#8220;But here, there is an entire team. And all the parents, teammates and everything that came to support.&#8221;</p><p>He also secured a bronze medal in the 200 IM, and his 1:55.26 was the 26th fastest time since 1995.</p><p>Rico&#8217;s 100 breast state title was bittersweet after getting disqualified from the 200 medley relay. PIAA officials charged Rico with two dolphin kicks on the breaststroke turn, banishing Rico and Wyoming Seminary from receiving gold medals upon touching the wall ahead of the field.</p><p>&#8220;He was so likeable and able for all of the kids to rally around him quickly,&#8221; Wyoming Seminary coach Philip Mercatili said. &#8220;Because of that, when we had the issue at states, it helped him get over that because the kids were all like, &#8216;It happens. Let&#8217;s move on. We have a lot more to go.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Rico came to Wyoming Seminary on a foreign exchange program called Assists. He emailed Mercatili over the summer to tell him he would be studying in Kingston with interest in swimming. After receiving a link to the Spanish national website with his times, Mercatili had to convert the times from long course to yards.</p><p>&#8220;I knew some of the times well enough to know they were good,&#8221; Mercatili said. &#8220;As I&#8217;m putting his time into this converter thing online, I&#8217;m getting more and more excited about him.&#8221;</p><p>Rico quickly assimilated into the U.S. and Wyoming Seminary. He traveled to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. He created a close bond with his host family who traveled to his swim meets.</p><p>&#8220;He was really quiet the first couple days of school,&#8221; Mercatili said. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know how confident he was with his English or whatever. Three weeks later, he was just as crazy as every other kid on campus, having fun and making friends pretty quickly.&#8221;</p><p>At the local level, Rico was a part of three new district records. His 200 medley relay of Matt Bean, Garrett Pall and Stan Zaneski broke a 31-year old record, set by Delaware Valley, by nearly a full second. He took down the 200 IM record by 64-hundredths of a second. He capped it off by annihilating a 32-year old breast district record by two seconds with a time of 57.26 in the 100 breast.</p><p>Moreover, he led Wyoming Seminary to its first Wyoming Valley Conference and District 2 team championships in 14 seasons.</p><p>&#8220;That was amazing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I wanted to do it for the team. They&#8217;ve given me so much. I wanted to return the favor. I&#8217;m glad I was able to do it for the coach. I was really happy.&#8221;</p><p>Mercatili will leave his new friends, teammates, host parents, girlfriend and coaches in six weeks when he heads back to Spain. After he graduates in two years, he said he plans to &#8220;swim and study here in America because it&#8217;s awesome.&#8221;</p><p><ins>For other sports stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/sports" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Spanish exchange student, Marcos Rico, became the WVC&#8217;s first state champion in a decade. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_Rico-POY.jpg</photo0><caption0>Spanish exchange student, Marcos Rico, became the WVC&#8217;s first state champion in a decade. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Seminary&#8217;s Marcos Rico heads back to Madrid with lots of hardware</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jay Monahan</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

TL Boys Swimmer of the Year: Wyoming Seminary’s Marcos Rico